Wait, sysvinit on debian 13 truly practically works?? as in, one can remove systemd and have a working server OS with sysv init??
Yes.
I run a full desktop too, without it. Multiple variants.
I don't use gnome's Desktop Environment though (although I do run gtk/gnome software), so cannot comment on that.
Yes, MX Linux will be doing this (as a separate ISO, until now they're been able to provide a single ISO that lets you choose between systemd and sysvinit at every boot):
https://mxlinux.org/blog/changes-coming-with-mx-25/